James George Drake
26 April 1850 — 1 August 1941
James George Drake (18‑136‑3)
James was born on 26 April 1850 in London. He arrived in Brisbane on 14 January 1874. He became a journalist working on regional newspapers as well as the Brisbane Telegraph and the Brisbane Courier and, briefly, the Melbourne Argus. A competent shorthand writer, later president of the Queensland Shorthand Writers' Association, James was on the parliamentary reporting staff from 1876-1882. He studied law in his spare time and was called to the bar in 1882. Long a radical, his objection to Asian immigration into Queensland led him into association with William Lane. He became a shareholder, writer and joint editor of Lane's weekly Boomerang in 1887.
In 1888 James entered politics and at the end of 1899, he was appointed government leader in the Queensland Legislative Council and Postmaster-General and Secretary for Public Instruction. He was an energetic supporter of Federation, writing frequently in newspapers, publishing the pamphlet Federation, Imperial or Democratic and running his own fortnightly paper Progress which espoused the cause.
Upon Federation, he won election to the first Senate, and was chosen to be Postmaster-General in Edmund Barton's first ministry, following the death of Sir James Dickson. In early 1906 Drake ran a newspaper, Commonwealth in Brisbane to counteract State hostility to the Commonwealth. He died in Brisbane Hospital on 1 August 1941.
Hon. James George Drake - State Library of Queensland.